Reference Guide

635
External Insert plug-in
Mixing
See:
Automating Effects
To use an external effect in a SONAR project
1. Make sure your external gear is connected to your audio interface and turned on.
The external gear’s audio input must be connected to one of your audio interface’s output ports
and the external gear’s audio output must be connected to one of your audio interface’s input
ports.
2. Right-click an FX bin and select External Insert from the pop-up menu.
The External Insert property page appears.
3. Click the Send Port control and choose the audio port that is connected to your external gear’s
audio input.
4. Click the Return Port control and choose the audio port that is connected to your external gear’s
audio output.
5. Click the Delay Measurement control to measure the round-trip delay through your audio
hardware.
The round-trip time for the signal to return is measured and displayed on the button. This is the
delay that will be compensated for in SONAR to keep the track in sync with the rest of the project.
For information about testing the delay measurement, see Testing the delay measurement and
When to measure the delay.
6. Play back the project and adjust the Send and Return levels to obtain the desired mix. You may
also need to adjust levels on your external gear.
Testing the delay measurement
The External Insert plug-in's delay measurement is normally sample accurate. However, for some
hardware configurations, it is possible that a manual adjustment of up to several samples may be
required in order to be exactly sample-accurate. If you wish to test the accuracy of the delay
measurement for your hardware, follow these steps:
Note: Time-based effects such as reverb and delay can artificially increase the latency
measurement. Before manually measuring the delay, you may want to bypass the external gear
(if Bypass is supported by your external gear).
Tip: The Send and Return levels, Phase and I/O port settings can be saved as a preset. If you
frequently use a specific external effect, save the settings as a preset that can be quickly recalled in
other projects.
Note: If you bounce audio in a project that uses the External Insert plug-in, the bounce
operation must be performed in real-time. For more information, see “Real-time bounce” on
page 666.